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Emerging

I spent most of the weekend curled up in bed nursing my migraines.  They began Friday morning when we had our Monthly Gathering, a wonderful morning of walking the labyrinth together except that I was in a bit of a haze from pain killers.  That afternoon I was able to get my infusion two weeks early because of my recent achiness, but it always makes me tired.  I came home that afternoon and slept for hours and continued like that through the weekend.  My beloved husband, knowing that light really bothers me when I get these headaches, closed every last blind

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February 12, 2007

I Am Going to Start Living Like a Mystic

I am Going to Start Living Like a Mystic  Today I am pulling on a green wool sweater and walking across the park in a dusky snowfall. The trees stand like twenty-seven prophets in a field, each a station in a pilgrimage–silent, pondering. Blue flakes of light falling across their bodies are the ciphers of a secret, an occultation. I will examine their leaves as pages in a text and consider the bookish pigeons, students of winter. I will kneel on the track of a vanquished squirrel and stare into a blank pond for the figure of Sophia. I shall begin

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February 9, 2007

Rule of Life at the Abbey

I have been reading a wonderful article from The Way journal by Andrew Linzey who is a theologian and writer on animal theology.  I was delighted to discover that he has in fact published several books on the subject.  Linzey writes: “People who keep animals have often made  an elementary but profound discovery: animals are not machines or commodities, but beings with their own God-given lives, individuality, and personality.  At their best, relationships with companion animals can help us to grow in mutuality, self-giving, and trust.”  (emphasis mine)  He goes on to quote theologian Stephen Webb who sees in these relationships

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February 8, 2007

Updates

I am doing a little housekeeping and unpacking of more boxes here at the Abbey: I have updated my Resource List to include blog friends (scroll to the bottom of the page).  One of the reasons I have never done this before is I am afraid of forgetting someone, so if I have done so, please do not take offense.  Just send me a gentle email or leave a comment.  I love the diversity of people I have gotten to know in the Blogosphere and value the variety of ideas I have encountered.  I have added a number of spirituality and

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February 7, 2007

Honoring the Greater Body

I am very touched by the response to my post yesterday both in comments and in email.  I knew opening up this vulnerable place would begin to shift things in me again, move me again to that place where honoring my body is a gift rather than a burden.  I am always struggling in some way with the tension between the limits of my body and the calling of my creative inspiration, but it occurred to me that this tension sets up an antagonism between the two which I don’t at all mean to build.  I believe deeply that caring for

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February 6, 2007

Listening Deeply to the Body

We had our fifth Awakening the Creative Spirit session on Friday and Saturday.  The focus this time was on movement led primarily by my teaching partner Betsey.  I was eager to see our group of wonderful women participating as always, but also wondered how I would do during this session since my body hasn’t been feeling very well lately.  I deal with chronic illness and it has been rearing its ugly head these last couple of weeks again.  I have dealt with this my whole adult life, and it doesn’t get any easier to confront the limitations of the body. 

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February 5, 2007

More Offerings Added. . .

Greetings again dear readers, I have added two different sets of photo notecards (trees and flowers) to my Offerings page, so head on over and take a peek (and better yet, order yourself a set or two!).  They are packaged with love and care and always a little extra treat.   More reflections to come later in the day. . .

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February 5, 2007

Groundhog Day

Celebrate this unlikely oracle, this ball of fat and fur, whom we so mysteriously endow with the power to predict spring. Let’s hear it for the improbable heroes who, frightened at their own shadows, nonetheless unwittingly work miracles. Why shouldn’t we believe this peculiar rodent holds power over sun and seasons in his stubby paw? Who says that God is all grandeur and glory? Unnoticed in the earth, worms are busily, brainlessly, tilling the soil. Field mice, all unthinking, have scattered seeds that will take root and grow. Grape hyacinths, against all reason, have been holding up green shoots beneath

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February 2, 2007

Quickening

Listen. Can you hear it? Can you hear the gentle quickening beneath the earth? Tomorrow on February 2nd is the feast of Imbolc, Candlemas, the feast of St. Bridget, and Groundhog Day.  It is a cross-quarter day meaning it is the midway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox.  The sun marks the four Quarter Days of the year (the Solstices and Equinoxes) and the midpoints are the cross-quarter days.  In some cultures this is the official beginning of spring. As the days slowly lengthen and the sun makes her way higher in the sky, the ground beneath our

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February 1, 2007

Rise Up Rooted

  Book of Hours II, 16  How surely gravity’s law, strong as an ocean current, takes hold of even the strongest thing and pulls it toward the heart of the world. Each thing – each stone, blossom, child – is held in place. Only we, in our arrogance, push out beyond what we belong to for some empty freedom. If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees. Instead we entangle ourselves in knots of our own making and struggle, lonely and confused. So, like children, we begin again to learn from the things, because they

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January 29, 2007